Character.AI review
- Made by
- Character Technologies, Inc.
- Founded
- 2021, by Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas
- Headquarters
- Menlo Park, California
- Free plan
- Yes: unlimited messaging, with ads and daily feature limits
- Paid plans from
- $4.99/month ((c.ai) lite, US); c.ai+ $9.99/month or $94.99/year
- Platforms
- Web, iOS, Android
- Age rules
- Open-ended chat is 18+ since 25 Nov 2025; under-18s get limited features
- Store age ratings
- 18+ on the App Store; Teen on Google Play
Character.AI is a free app and website for chatting with AI characters. Its users have built a huge library of them, from anime heroes and historical figures to game masters and language tutors, and you can make your own in a few minutes. You can text them, talk to them in voice calls, bring several into a group chat, or turn a chat into a comic.
It ranks #2 in our best AI roleplay chatbots, behind Claude, and #5 in our best AI companions, where safety and privacy count for more. Since November 2025 people under 18 cannot use open-ended chat, and the company has settled lawsuits over harm to teenagers. This review covers what the app does well, what adult users complain about, and whether paying for c.ai+ makes sense.
Character.AI is worth trying if you are an adult who wants variety: no other app has as many ready-made characters, and the free plan has no message cap. Pay for c.ai+ ($9.99 a month) only if ads and slow mode bother you or you want its fuller memory tools. Skip it if you want deep long-term memory or the best writing, where Claude is stronger, or if you are choosing an app for a teenager.
Score breakdown
Best for
- Adults who want to browse and chat with many ready-made characters
- Casual creative roleplay, fan fiction and quick story scenes
- Practising a language or a job interview with a voiced character
- Creators who enjoy building and sharing their own characters
Skip it if
- Anyone under 18: open-ended chat is blocked for minors
- People who want one companion that remembers months of history
- Users who will not accept ads, age checks or content filters
- Anyone in a hard place emotionally who needs real support
What we like
- Largest library of user-made characters of any roleplay app
- Free plan with unlimited text messaging
- Voices, calls, group chats, Lorebook and comics as well as text
- Strict under-18 rules, with age assurance through its own model and Persona
- Low-cost upgrades: (c.ai) lite from $4.99 and c.ai+ from $9.99 a month
Watch out for
- Record of lawsuits over harm to teenagers, five settled in January 2026
- Adults report being flagged as minors and asked for a face scan or ID
- Ads, slow mode and daily feature limits on the free plan
- Memory is weaker than Kindroid's or Claude's in long stories
- Rated 2.2 out of 5 on Google Play from about 2.4 million ratings
Key features, explained
Character library and creator
Almost every character on Character.AI is made by a user. You search by name or browse categories, pick one and start chatting within seconds. Making your own takes a few minutes: you describe its personality and write how it greets you, and creators can also give it a voice. The range is the main attraction: popular fictional figures, original creations, study helpers and text adventures all sit side by side in one app.
Chat styles (the AI models)
Character.AI calls its AI models chat styles. Everyone can use PipSqueak 2 and PipSqueak 2 Rawr. The company says PipSqueak 2, released in April 2026, keeps characters more consistent and dialogue more natural. The premium styles, DeepSqueak and LongSqueak, are unlimited on c.ai+. The cheaper (c.ai) lite plan gives a daily allowance of them, then switches your chat back to a free style without interrupting it.
Memory, pins and Lorebook
Long-press a message to pin it, and the character keeps that detail in memory. Free accounts get 15 pins and paid plans 30. A memory bar shows what is using up space before older details get compressed. c.ai+ adds Facts, which records details about your persona, the character and side characters automatically, plus the advanced Lorebook, including private Lorebooks for places, backstories and world rules that carry across chats.
Voices and Character Calls
Characters can read their replies aloud in one-to-one chats, using voices from a community library or pre-made ones. Character Calls, which the company made free for everyone in June 2024, lets you hold a two-way spoken conversation, like a phone call, and switch back to text at any time. It works in several languages, which makes it handy for language practice or rehearsing an interview. Paid plans raise daily feature limits.
Group chats
Group chat puts several AI characters and several people in the same conversation. Character.AI first launched it for c.ai+ subscribers on its mobile apps in October 2023. It suits tabletop-style adventures, a debate between historical figures or a scene with a full cast. A common set-up is one character acting as narrator or game master while the others play parts, with you and your friends joining in as players.
Comics, Series and the under-18 experience
Character.AI is adding formats beyond chat. Comics, launched in September 2026, turns a chat or a new premise into a multi-page comic with consistent character art, and it is paid for with Charms, the in-app currency. The company also offers Books, Series (short dramas made by its studio) and a Feed. These non-chat features are what users under 18 can use now that open-ended chat is closed to them.
Where Character.AI ranks
Our scores come from our category rankings, where each tool is scored 0–10 on weighted criteria against its rivals.
| Ranking | Listed as | Position | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best AI Roleplay Chatbots | Character.AI | #2 of 10 | 7.7 |
| Best AI Girlfriend Apps | Character.AI | #3 of 6 | 6.2 |
| Best AI Companions | Character.AI | #5 of 7 | 6.3 |
What users say about Character.AI
Ratings split sharply by platform. Character.AI scores 4.3 out of 5 from about 558,000 ratings on Apple's US App Store, but 2.2 from about 2.4 million on Google Play and 1.2 from 732 reviews on Trustpilot. Users praise the sheer range of characters, how quickly you can start a scene, and the fun of voices and group chats. Recent reviews are dominated by complaints about changes since 2025: more ads, slow mode and daily limits unless you pay, age checks that flag adults and ask for a face scan or ID, filters that block ordinary action scenes, and characters that forget details or lose their personality in long chats. Some reviewers also miss chat models that were removed.
Users praise
- A huge variety of characters for almost any interest
- Quick to start a scene, with no setup
- Voices, calls and group chats make roleplay feel lively
- The free plan still has no message cap
Users complain about
- More ads, slow mode and limits unless you pay
- Age checks that wrongly flag adults and ask for a face scan or ID
- Filters that block ordinary fiction, such as action scenes
- Characters forget details or drift out of character in long chats
| Review site | Rating | Reviews | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apple App Store (US) | 4.3/5 | 558,000 | 2026-09 |
| Google Play (US) | 2.2/5 | 2,442,500 | 2026-09 |
| Trustpilot | 1.2/5 | 732 | 2026-09 |
Ratings are third-party aggregates and change over time. They are context, not part of our score.
Character.AI is free, and messaging stays unlimited on the free plan. Two paid plans lift the limits: (c.ai) lite at $4.99 a month (or $2.49 a week) in the US, and c.ai+ at $9.99 a month or $94.99 a year. Lite cuts ads and gives a daily allowance of the premium chat styles. c.ai+ removes ads completely and makes the premium styles unlimited.
Most casual users can stay on the free plan. Choose lite if banner ads and the 15-pin memory limit annoy you, and c.ai+ if you chat every day and want the best models and memory tools. Prices vary by country, and Charms (the in-app currency) cost extra.
| Plan | Price |
|---|---|
| Free | $0 |
| (c.ai) lite | $4.99/month or $2.49/week (US) |
| c.ai+ | $9.99/month, or $94.99/year (about $7.92/month) |
Full Character.AI pricing breakdown, hidden costs and money-saving tips
Teen safety: lawsuits, rules and what changed
Character.AI is the company most closely tied to the debate over AI chatbots and teenagers. The main events, from court reporting, regulators and the company's own posts:
- October 2024: Megan Garcia sued Character Technologies, its two founders and Google in federal court in Orlando. She alleged that chats with a Character.AI bot contributed to the suicide of her 14-year-old son, Sewell Setzer III, in February 2024. Families in Texas filed a separate suit in December 2024.
- May 2025: Judge Anne Conway declined, at that stage, to treat chatbot output as protected speech, so the Garcia case could go ahead.
- September 2025: the FTC ordered seven companies, including Character Technologies, to explain how they measure and limit harm to children from companion chatbots.
- October 29, 2025: Character.AI said it would end open-ended chat for under-18s by November 25, 2025, with shrinking daily time limits before then, and check ages with its own model plus the Persona service.
- January 2026: a January 7 court filing showed that Character.AI, its founders and Google had agreed to settle Garcia's case, and four more cases in New York, Colorado and Texas were also settled. The terms are confidential and the filings contain no admission of liability. On January 8, Kentucky's attorney general filed a state lawsuit under consumer-protection and data-privacy laws.
- May 2026: Pennsylvania's Department of State sued, alleging that some bots presented themselves as licensed medical professionals, including a psychiatrist.
- July 2026: Italy's data protection authority fined the company €158,000 over GDPR failures, including weak age verification, and gave it 120 days to report fixes.
- September 2026: a safety update described self-harm detection that reads the wider conversation, support resources from Koko and ThroughLine, and weekly activity emails for parents through k-ID.
If a conversation stirs up difficult feelings, talk to a person. In the US, call or text 988. In the UK and Ireland, call Samaritans on 116 123.
Privacy and data
Character.AI's App Store privacy label says it may use your location, contact details, identifiers and usage data to track you across other companies' apps and websites. It also links purchases, content you create, identifiers and usage data to your account. Ads help pay for the free plan.
Age checks start with the company's own estimation model, and uncertain cases go to Persona, a third-party verification service; Trustpilot reviewers describe being asked for a face scan or a photo ID. In July 2026 Italy's regulator found gaps in the company's privacy notices, risk assessment and age checks. Treat chats as stored company data: do not share your full name, school, address or health details with a character.
What changed in 2026
- April: PipSqueak 2, a new chat model, reached c.ai+ members first and free users from May. The same update redesigned memory and introduced Lorebook.
- May: a memory update added Story Memory and pins for everyone and Facts for c.ai+.
- September 2: Comics launched, turning chats into multi-page comics paid for with Charms.
- September: a new mid-priced plan, (c.ai) lite, costs $4.99 a month in the US. See our Character.AI pricing page.
- September 18: Character.AI said its CEO, Karandeep Anand, is leaving to become Disney's first chief technology officer from October 2, and that some of its technical team are expected to join Disney. The company says the app remains live.
- Pin the details that matter, such as your character's name, a relationship or a plot twist. Free accounts get 15 pins, so unpin old details as the story moves on.
- When a long story starts to drift, open a new chat and paste a short recap in your first message. A clean start with a clear summary usually beats pushing past the memory limit.
- Put world details (places, factions, rules) in a Lorebook instead of repeating them in chat, so they carry across your conversations.
- Try (c.ai) lite before c.ai+. It removes banner ads and gives a daily allowance of the premium chat styles for $4.99 a month in the US, half the c.ai+ price.
- Use a nickname and keep personal details out of chats. The characters are fictional, but your messages are stored by the company.
Character.AI alternatives
Jargon explained
- Chat style
- Character.AI's name for the AI model that writes a character's replies, such as PipSqueak 2 or DeepSqueak.
- Memory pin
- A message you mark so the character keeps that detail in memory. Free accounts get 15 and paid plans 30.
- Lorebook
- A set of notes about a story world, such as places, backstories and rules, that the AI draws on so details stay consistent across chats.
- Charms
- Character.AI's in-app currency. You buy it in packs and spend it on premium extras such as Comics.
- Age assurance
- Checks that estimate or confirm how old a user is, for example with an AI model, a selfie or an ID document.
Frequently asked questions
Is Character.AI free?
Yes. Character.AI says messaging is free and unlimited for everyone. The free plan has ads, slow mode at busy times and daily limits on some features. Paid plans start at $4.99 a month for (c.ai) lite in the US. Details are on our Character.AI pricing page.
Is Character.AI safe for teenagers?
Since November 25, 2025, users under 18 cannot use open-ended chat. They get limited creative features such as Comics, Series and the Feed, and a parent linked to a teen account can receive weekly activity emails through k-ID. The app is rated 18+ on the App Store but Teen on Google Play, so use Apple Screen Time or Google Family Link as well. The company settled five lawsuits over harm to teenagers in January 2026.
Why is Character.AI asking me to verify my age?
Character.AI estimates every user's age with its own model. If the model is not sure you are an adult, it asks you to verify through Persona, a third-party service. Reviewers report adults being flagged too and being asked for a face scan or a photo ID before they can chat freely again.
Is Character.AI shutting down?
No closure has been announced. On September 18, 2026 the company said its CEO, Karandeep Anand, is leaving to join Disney, that some technical staff are expected to follow, and that the app is still live. That post did not name a successor.
Does Character.AI remember past conversations?
Within a chat, up to a limit. Pins (15 on free, 30 on paid plans), Story Memory and Lorebook help characters keep key details, and c.ai+ adds automatic Facts. For very long stories, Kindroid and Claude keep track better.
Sources
Every fact on this page comes from public information. Vendor figures are labelled as vendor claims.
- Character.AI subscription plans (Character.AI)
- About (c.ai) lite (Character.AI Help Center)
- (c.ai) lite FAQ (Character.AI Help Center)
- C.ai+ FAQ (Character.AI Help Center)
- Smarter Memory for Smarter Chats (Character.AI)
- April Update: New Model, Memory, and Lorebook (Character.AI)
- Introducing Character Calls (Character.AI)
- New Feature Announcement: Character Group Chat (Character.AI)
- (c.ai) Comics and the Interactive Future of Fandom (Character.AI)
- The Next Chapter of Entertainment and Fandom (Character.AI)
- Taking the next step for our under-18 community (Character.AI)
- Continuing To Build Upon Our Safety Priorities (Character.AI)
- The Walt Disney Company names Karandeep Anand to newly created role of Chief Technology Officer (The Walt Disney Company)
- Character.AI and Google agree to settle lawsuits over teen mental health harms and suicides (CNN)
- AI company, Google settle lawsuit over Florida teen's suicide linked to Character.AI chatbot (CBS News)
- In lawsuit over Orlando teen's suicide, judge rejects that AI chatbots have free speech rights (WUSF)
- AG Coleman sues AI chatbot company (Kentucky Office of the Attorney General)
- Kentucky Attorney General files lawsuit against Character.AI (Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz)
- Shapiro Administration sues Character.AI over fake medical claims (Commonwealth of Pennsylvania)
- Intelligenza artificiale: il Garante privacy sanziona Character.AI (Garante per la protezione dei dati personali)
- FTC launches inquiry into AI chatbots acting as companions (FTC)
- Character.ai (Wikipedia)
- Character.AI company profile (Forbes)
- Character AI: Chat, Talk, Text (Apple App Store)
- Character AI on Google Play (Google Play)
- Character.ai reviews (Trustpilot)
- Claude pricing (Anthropic)
- Anthropic consumer terms of service (Anthropic)
- ChatGPT pricing (OpenAI)
- Introducing parental controls (OpenAI)
- AI Dungeon memberships and benefits (Latitude)
- What are the AI Safety Settings? (Latitude)
- Kindroid on the App Store (Apple App Store)
- SillyTavern GitHub repository (GitHub)
- Replika on the App Store (Apple App Store)
- AI: the Italian supervisory authority fines company behind chatbot Replika (European Data Protection Board)
- Nomi on the App Store (Apple App Store)
- An AI chatbot told a user how to kill himself, but the company doesn't want to censor it (MIT Technology Review)
- Talkie Lab on the App Store (Apple App Store)
- Talkie on Google Play (Google Play)
- MiniMax Group (Wikipedia)
- Age verification for Australia, Brazil and the UK (Janitor AI)